EACC on the spot over flash disk evidence in Anglo Leasing cases

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has been put on the spot following revelations in court that the electronic evidence received from the Swiss government in relation to the Anglo Leasing contracts was not authenticated in line with the law.

Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku heard on Tuesday that the evidence, including compact and flash disks, was brought to court without a certificate of authentication — which verifies the genuineness of a document.

Top EACC investigator Gideon Rukaria said he did not receive a certificate of authentication to confirm the authenticity of the documents as received from Switzerland. The certificate was supposed to be tabled in court along with the electronic exhibits, which are already before the trail magistrate.

The accused, through their lawyer, questioned the eligibility of the evidence presented saying that the relevant law was not complied with. Tye lawyer argued that the documents cannot be admitted in court without the certificate of authentication.

However, Mr Rukaria said the document can be tabled in court.

The prosecution has presented to court the exhibits in a flash disk and compact disk that were obtained from Switzerland through the mutual legal assistance law that Kenya adopted in 2012.

It allows agreements between two or more countries for gathering and exchanging information. Former senior government officials and businessmen are facing charges related to the multi-billion shilling security tenders that the government has termed irregular.

Mr Rukaria yesterday said he was aware the Anglo Leasing files were returned to cover certain grey areas.

This followed a brief from the then Attorney General Amos Wako saying the files had gaps and could not sustain a successful prosecution.

The gaps highlighted in Mr Wako's report included lack of evidence indicating that Parliament was not consulted over the Anglo Leasing contracts and lack of budget allocation for security items.

Mr Wako said that there was no formal statement from the Central Bank of Kenya and the Treasury. He had demanded a report from the head of procurement on the ministers’ role in the purchase.

The former AG also called for the replacement of some prosecution witnesses, arguing that they may turn hostile to the court because they faced charges in other Anglo Leasing contracts cases.

Mr Rukaria also said that the investigations at the time had not been concluded and they continued to receive additional evidence to support the cases.

“There was a lot of information that we received later, both in evidence and content,” Mr Rukaria said.

He added that there is no limit to investigations and if they receive new evidence they will still present it as has been the case with many other graft related issues.